Secure Within the Perimeter
by roadrodent60
Summary: My first Zootopia fanfic. Done in response to this illo /post/show/1201762/2017-anthro-arctic fox-bandage-bed-canid-canine-cl The head of an "out of sight/off the official books" agency is searching for a team of four agents who have gone missing after the rather "exciting" finish of an operation.


Secure in the Perimeter

Sir, ZPD has the warehouse covered and we ve swept the area out to six blocks, reported the cheetah.

And?

Six dead bodies and three injured perps found so far.

Pause.

Sir.

Yes?

We were treating one of the live ones, a tiger, for injuries and he woke up and started thrashing around and yelling Get him off, get him off, get him off me!

The ghost of a grim smile crossed the cape buffalo s face.

What was the nature of his injuries? he asked.

Claw marks that look like they were inflicted by a small canine type, a lot of them.

And?

Bite marks, too. They quit counting after they got to 15. Most of them deep and some show a good bit of tearing in them as well, like whoever did it jerked their head around to make them worse.

Like they had gone Savage, remarked the Chief.

Despite all of his training and experience, the cheetah felt a slight shiver run through him. He d seen what Nighthowler effected mammals could do, and the tiger s injuries were a reminder .

Any sign of the team, yet? asked his superior as he bent down to look over the aerial map displayed on his portable flat screen.

No sir, nothing yet.

Other than a half destroyed warehouse and the trail of havoc they left, the feline added in his head. How in the name of fur flaming Hell can four mammals do the damage of a veteran combat platoon?!

The chief looked over the area map while combing his memory for what he knew about this team. One thing he knew was that for a long term mission they would find and set up emergency bolt holes to retreat to if things went wrong or, at least, questionable. These places would be innocuous, unremarkable, so he needed to look for those.

Hmmm, they wouldn t choose anything along or at the end of their battle corridor, he murmured to himself. So, where else could they go that the perps, or even we, would be unlikely to pay any attention to?

The area was mainly industrial and storage/warehouse. It was surrounded by older residential neighborhoods and the various shopping/sales stores to support their population. Most up towners tended to regard the area, and a few others like it, as the bad parts of town. While many of the residences in these areas were kept up, a number of others were not or were abandon. The abandon ones were appropriately marked on his map. His eye roved over the likely areas and anything that even slightly caught his attention got a reject mark. Each reject blanked out and, when his scan was complete, he eyed the four remaining possibles and then marked off two more. What remained was one abandon house and a 16 story tenement building that was closed up and slated for demolition in about three weeks. The house was one of three (the others were abandon as well) left on its block, surrounded by overgrowth that screened it from casual eyes.

Foxes and rabbits are burrowers, the Chief said to himself as he eyed the house. They like being low to or under the ground.

He paused for a few seconds then pointed to a place on the map.

Lt., gather your team, I believe we ll find them here, Bogo said.

Listen up, everyone! Bogo growled. This team is very tight knit; joined at the hips barely begins to describe how closely meshed together they are!  
It is likely that some of them have sustained injuries, not enough to be life threatening or they would be trying to get to a hospital or to contact us for help.  
Still, they will be in a highly protective state of mind. They are tired and likely on a literal hair trigger. So, if startled, they will shoot first and, maybe, concern themselves with questions at a later date. Should you encounter any doors that are locked or blocked you are to mark them, note them, and then proceed with the search. I repeat, do NOT try to force ANY doors that are locked or blocked! This area has had quite enough excitement without there being an additional shootout occurring.

The Chief had his agents repeat the instructions back to him to be sure they understood them.

One more thing, canines and ungulates are to wear foot coverings to void making noise, he added, pulling out his own set of noise cancelling hoof boots.

He had three agents set up a watch and guard perimeter while assigning the rest, and himself, to the search of the building. The top six floors were set up for smaller mammals, wolf sized down to rabbit sized, with the remaining lower floors for antelope to cape buffalo size folks. The Chief assigned his mammals to checking floors three through ten

Anything lower would not be considered by them, he explained.

while taking the 11th to 16th floors as his search zone. Bogo was sure they would not choose the top two floors and considered it unlikely they would pick the 11th floor as it was the start of the smaller mammal zone of the building. As such, he began his search on the 12th floor. Though meant for folks smaller than himself, the hallways were, by regulation, built large enough for bigger mammals to get through if only just so. The buffalo had to keep his head down some to avoid getting his horns tangled in what was left of the overhead lighting fixtures. All but one of the doors were partly to completely open with the one that was closed easily opened. The next floor up was the same story but with two of the doors closed. The handles on both turned but the doors refused to swing open at his gentle pushes. Frowning in thought, he decided to follow his own orders and mark them then tap in the notes on them on his tablet. Floor 14 was similar to the previous one in that there were two doors that were locked and neither moved in the slightest at his easy push on them. The second one caught his attention for there was not one bit of light showing through the almost inch of space between the bottom of the door and the floor. He knew better than to go any further with the door. Spirits and ancestors only knew what kinds of alarms and/or booby-traps were set on it. Instead, he side stepped once along the wall and then pulled something from a pouch on his belt. From the kit he withdrew a small battery powered drill and set in it a one-eighth inch diameter bit that stuck out some six inches and then tightened up the chuck. Placing the drill point against the wall at his eye level Bogo pressed the trigger to its lowest setting and began boring into the wall. He put on just enough pressure for the bit to get its bite in the material so that when it broke through he didn t end up slamming the drill into the wall. There was about four inches of empty space and then the bit encountered the other side of the wall and it took several seconds to bore through it.  
Withdrawing and then putting away the drill, he pulled out the fiber optic viewer unit with its probe. After slipping the slender probe through the wall, the Chief activated the viewer. There was an initial flare of light then the unit adjusted to normal seeing intensity and a clear picture appeared on the screen. Late morning sunlight, streaming through a partly open curtain, lit up the scene. Small room, like he d figured, with about a quarter of the floor space taken up by a bed barely big enough for him to fit in. Still, it was more than big enough for the mammals, two foxes and two rabbits, dozing on it. Bogo set the unit to its thermal viewing setting. Yes, pretty much normal heat readings from all four occupants. And with that bit of data, Bogo s brow unfarrowed some. He had a soft spot for these four, not that he would admit to it to anyone other than himself, so finding them alive and intact was a relief.

Hmmm, a little early on the intact part, he thought after zooming in some more.

All of them were down to their underwear and not a whole lot of that, either. What this revealed was a number of bandages stuck on various places and strips of medical gauze on the hindquarter and footpaw of one of the foxes, Nick. The other vulpine, a white furred vixen name Skye, sported a bandage patch on her right cheek ruff, a couple patches on her left side, and just a bit of gauze wrap on her partly visible hindquarter. Her head rested on the pillow that was Nick s tail.  
The bunnies were harder to evaluate because of the way the four were arranged. The tod fox and the vixen were set up in a circular formation with Nick s head resting on Skye s hindquarters. In turn, her nose barely inches from Nick s hindquarters with her head pillowed on his tail. Within that vulpine circle were the rabbits. A doe, Judy, lay on her side snugged up against Nick s chest with her muzzle and head resting in his neck fur. She had an arm up and resting on Nick s upper arm while his uppermost arm was wrapped around her and his chin set atop her head. All Bogo could see of her injuries was several loops of gauze wrapped around her upper torso with the rest of her concealed by the fox s body. The other bunny, a buck by the name of Jack, was even more hidden within Skye s protective hold.  
There was a couple of gauze loops over his forehead and at least one around a partly exposed foot. Jack s head was snuggled up against Skye s left cheek ruff with his face and nose almost burrowed into the left side of her muzzle while his head rested on Nick s tail. Though most would see this as anything from adorably cute to, because of the pred/prey mix, disturbing. Bogo saw it for what it truly was; a fox protection perimeter set around their lapin partners, and lovers, with said bunnies cuddling close not just for the warmth and security of their partners but to assure Nick and Skye as well.

Attention team, Bogo spoke, softly, into his mic.

On the viewer, he saw ears raise and/or swivel in his direction. Mentally cursing himself for forgetting how good their hearing was (and the thinness of the walls) he clicked the remote receive switch on the viewer to sync it to his tablet, let go of it to hang there, and then edged down towards the far end of the hall. While doing so, he received three calls from his second in command asking what he wanted, calls he dared not answer until he got to the end of the corridor.

Shut it! Bogo soft growled at his mic.

Uh, sir, are you alright?

Fine. I found them, floor 14, room 1416. They are banged up

The medevac choppers are in the air and can be here in about three minutes, interrupted the Lt.

Well, tell them to return to base and go on standby. There is no way we are going to interrupt this team without risk of undue excitement . All searchers are to retire to the ground floor and join the holding team in keeping this area secure and quiet.

He thought for a second, then added;

Contact ZPD and make them aware that it would be highly appreciated if they would keep this area quiet for the next ten to twelve hours.

Roger, sir.

Using the stairs, the Chief went down to his ground floor command post. There, he set up his tablet and activated the link to the viewer. Yes, they were back in relaxed sleep. He used a control to warp the tip of the probe so he could see the door and, as he had figured, it was barricaded. After expanding the image, he could make out a couple of wires coming out from under the blocking items to what he knew was an alarm device.

Sir?

Yes?

How did you know they would be here? asked the Lt.

The house looked like the most logical place so I discarded it, so that left just this building, Bogo replied.

You took the smaller mammal floors for yourself, the cheetah pointed out.

Yes.

That meant that you were pretty sure they would be there. Again, how did you know?

Bogo was silent of a few seconds.

Lt., our instincts shade our lives despite our evolution. The ancestors of these mammals were burrowing creatures, hell, outside of the cities the bunnies still are. Thousands of years of survival instincts make them comfortable in dens and burrows. And when under stress or hurt that desire for a safe and cozy den is magnified even more. So when they pick a place to retreat to it is a high priority that it have as much of the feel of a den as possible. And some of the rooms in this building fit the bill nicely.

Okay, sir. But that would seem to make that house a better candidate as it is close to the ground and surrounded by that wall of growth to help shield it vs the 14th floor of this building the Lt. pointed out.

True, it would. But, you want to keep in mind that they mix things up some, want to add something unexpected so as to make finding their safe dens difficult for those who might be looking for them. The logic you used would lead others, should they take into account species instinct, to a similar conclusion.

So, they place their chosen den on a building floor high off the ground to train wreck that logical line of thinking, mused the Lt.  
Correct, replied Bogo. And, Lt .

Yes, sir?

You WILL keep that information strictly to yourself!

What information, sir?

Good answer, the Chief said as he nodded to the Lt.

Taking the hint, he moved off and Bogo returned his attention to his tablet screen to see the dozing four in their warm and comfortable cuddle nest.

Sleep well, my friends. You have more than earned it, Bogo said. 


End file.
